Reclaiming Glory by Clifton Mark;

Author:Clifton, Mark;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion/Christian Ministry/Missions
Publisher: B&H Publishing Group
Published: 2016-06-02T00:00:00+00:00

men are in your community and how you can be part of those gatherings.

It may be that what you are doing in mentoring young men won’t happen in the context of the church for a while. Young men—particularly non-Christian young men—won’t be interested in your work of replanting a church. For a time you may be loving on and caring for older members, working through leadership issues at the church, and connecting with young men in a completely different venue—maybe through one-on-one Bible study. It is through your church’s community service that you will bring the two groups together. Young leaders—saved or not—who may not be interested in the life of your church will be interested in the work of your church if you are active and serving the community. As they see you and your church demonstrating your commitment to community improvement, they will want to be part of what’s going on.

Make Disciples Who Make Disciples

Jesus gives his church clear instructions in Matthew 28:19–20:

“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you.”

Nearly every evangelical church you go into will recognize the Great Commission’s call to make disciples as a core part of the church’s mission. Yet most of our churches struggle to do it. For the replanting church, discipleship is theologically and pragmatically essential. The replanting church needs to lead new people to Christ, help them grow in their faith, and to eventually reproduce themselves.

Growing up, discipleship for me was filling in a discipleship notebook. I would learn Scripture, answer questions, and measure my progress, primarily by how much of the notebook I filled in. While away at camp, I would get pretty good at filling it out every day during my devotional time. Then I would get back home and for the first few days, or even weeks, I would continue my habit. Not only was this not discipleship, it leaned, for me anyway, toward legalism. When I filled out my notebook and kept my daily “quiet time,” I tended to be proud of my accomplishment. I would be eager to go to youth group on Wednesday night so I could share at the appropriate time just how “faithful” I had been. While I am confessing, I’ll go ahead and say it: I liked to compare myself to the “spiritual slackers” of the group who missed a few days in their quiet time that week. Yes, I was filled with pride, and that was a sin.

Then, invariably something would come up and I would miss a day or two along the way. Then I would feel so guilty that I didn’t want to go to church because I didn’t want to report my lack of discipleship activity. I didn’t even want to start my quiet time again because I was embarrassed to come before God again and admit I hadn’t been committed enough to get out of bed a few minutes early each day.

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